Investec London Cup 2012

With just over seven weeks until the Olympic Games, London has the opportunity of a trial run as it plays host to the Investec London Cup at University of Westminster Sports Ground, Chiswick from the 5th to the 10th June. Ireland's national women's hockey team (World number 14) sponsored by Electric Ireland, will compete against some of the world's top nations when they face The Netherlands (World number 1) and Commonwealth champions Australia (World number 7) in Pool A, while Pool B pits Germany (World number 3), South Africa (African champions and World number 12) and Great Britain (Champions trophy silver medallists and world number 4) together all of whom are preparing for the London 2012 Olympics.

Ireland's last outing was the final of the Olympic qualifiers against Belgium in March and although the team didn't manage to get the result they wanted they showed incredible drive and passion for the green jersey throughout the tournament. That drive can be summed up by none other than Hermes' Audrey O'Flynn who unknowingly broke her jaw in the second last group game against Spain. It was only when she arrived back to Ireland and had an x-ray that it was found that she had a broken jaw.

This will be coach Denis Pritchard's first tournament in charge since being appointed interim coach, commenting on the upcoming competition Pritchard said ''Our main focus for this series of games will be on individual improvement as the component for overall team progress. The importance of each player's input into the larger framework will be stressed, this way; irrespective of the opposition we will show progress. This will be an exciting event for us which gives some younger players an opportunity to compete at a very high level and for us all to build on the progress made in recent years.''

The squad picked for the Investec Cup is a blend of youth and experience. Ireland will want to build on their good work in the Olympic qualifiers and move forward towards the Champions Challenge 1 in September. For the less experienced members of the squad this will be a great opportunity to test themselves against top teams who have qualified for the Olympics. Ireland starts their campaign on Wednesday against the Australians with a 17.30 start time.